HOT WHEELS Infinite Rush Track Builder in the Open World

Infinite Rush keeps the Hot Wheels fantasy that Unleashed started (you are not only racing orange track, you are building it) and then glues that builder to a die-cast-scale city instead of a blank table. Milestone’s enhanced Track Builder lets you attach modules to the ground, wrap them around buildings, and run lines above the skyline. The snap tool is the headline: pieces follow terrain height and shape instead of floating in a void. This page is the builder briefing for an upcoming game (launch September 10, 2026; Ultimate Early Access September 7). It is not a piece-by-piece catalogue, because that catalogue is not public.

If you have not driven the campaign islands yet, finish Getting Started and a few Wheelswood laps before you open the editor. A builder is more fun when you already know how boost, drift, and a Rush Squad swap feel on stock asphalt.

What changed versus Unleashed

Unleashed treated the world as a human backyard you dropped track into. Infinite Rush treats the island as the playset. Modules snap to ground, climb walls, and sit above streets so a custom course can weave through Wheelswood glass or Gearville cranes. Official copy: attach modules to the ground, build around buildings, or race above the city among skyscrapers. Your first layout should use a real landmark (a canal, a factory, a temple stair) rather than a floating oval that ignores the island.

You can also add virtual opponents. Special action markers define AI behaviour: racing lines, acceleration, and braking points (Beyond the Track Episode 3 / collection press kit). Interview notes describe those markers as simplified versions of Milestone’s internal tools. Place markers as if you were teaching a friend the racing line. Validation exists as a mode goal; treat it as the game accepts this as a course, not as a quality rating. Share after it validates.

Building on the four islands

The editor is only as interesting as the island under it. Wheelswood wants vertical pieces and street-level clips between skyscrapers. Tentacle Bay (the press name; a Citypark logo may still appear in art) wants shoreline runs and park crossings. Gearville wants canyon walls and factory threading. Drifty Temples wants canal hops and neon-height loops under the dragon. Use the Launcher the same way you do in career: hop islands when the terrain is wrong for the idea, documented in the islands guide.

Class still matters after you hit save. If you build a Drifter gate sequence, do not be shocked when a Speeder squad cannot run it. Point visitors at vehicle classes and Rush Squad rather than calling the track broken. Boost and near-zero friction are still the physics. Give your layout a straight or a slide that actually feeds the meter. If you cannot drive the line, the piece placement is not the problem; see controls.

Sharing, cross-play, and Switch 2

Milestone’s create-and-share pitch is: customize cars (stickers, liveries, new wheel customization), share creations across platforms, race online in cross-play, and play split-screen with up to four friends. The asterisk on that sentence is consistent in official materials: Nintendo Switch 2 is excluded from full cross-play, and the same exclusion is attached to sharing creations across platforms. Switch 2 players can still build, still split-screen locally, and still race other Switch 2 players. They should not expect a PS5 ghost of their track to appear in the same shared pool, and they should not expect a twelve-car cross-play lobby. Online size on Switch 2 is listed at six racers versus twelve elsewhere. Details live on platforms.

PC online uses Epic Online Services and Easy Anti-Cheat. Split-screen remains the reliable couch test: up to four players. Do not promise a friend on Switch 2 that your Xbox layout will just show up. Build together locally, or stay inside the platforms that actually cross-play. Storefronts sit on Links.

What the builder is not

It is not a first-hour activity, a way to skip Rush Masters, or a replacement for Daredevils and Delivery Stunts when you need garage cars; those live on open-world challenges. DLC packs sit on the editions page. Isola Ferrari is another island to snap onto later, not a reason to delay learning the snap tool on Wheelswood.

A good first project: ten pieces, one landmark, one AI marker path, one validate, one split-screen lap with a friend who brought the correct class. A bad first project: a spaghetti bowl you cannot finish and cannot share because Switch 2 was the only other pad in the house.

Treat the city as the playset box lid, not a blank grid. Snap to something that already exists (a Gearville crane, a Tentacle Bay pier, a Drifty Temples canal) then add the orange that Unleashed players already know. If the layout only works in a void, you used the old game’s instincts on the new one’s islands. Share where the asterisk allows, race where cross-play is real, and keep a four-class squad in the pit so visitors can actually drive the joke. When the editor is closed, the rest of the toy is still the guides hub: islands to roam, challenges to trip over, and four bosses that do not care how pretty your custom loop was.